The invention is directed to a tobacco product consisting of a pre-portioned tobacco supply surrounded by cigarette paper of tubular shape, and to a method of and a device for preparing such a tobacco product.
The preparation of cigarettes by the consumer has been known in various forms for a long time. This applies especially to the so-called self-rolling of cigarettes by the use of cigarette paper leaves with a paste applied to the edges. The roll-your-own cigarette making method requires a certain manual skill and is time-consuming. Even with skilled self-rollers, the cigarettes themselves differ widely as regards their size (diameter), stability (tautness) and degree of filling over the length of the cigarette, and they are but a primitive substitute for industrially made cigarettes. Furthermore, it is a drawback of manual rolling that crumbling of tobacco is unavoidable which is undesirable from the aspect of tobacco yield. The same problems--though to a reduced extent--also exist when self-rolling devices are used. Similar aspects also hold for the other basic method of making cigarettes by oneself, i.e., for the self-filling of cigarettes. There are a number of more or less comfortable devices for filling empty cigarette tubes (normally filter-tipped) with tobacco, and all of the conventional devices have an elongate pressing chamber in common which is defined, on the one hand, by an approximately semi-circular fixed wall portion and, on the other hand, by an opposite semi-circular surface of a movable pressing member by means of which the pressing chamber may be closed after having been charged with tobacco, whereby a strand-like tobacco supply is produced. At one end of the pressing chamber a mounting funnel is provided for attaching and mounting an empty tubular cigarette wrapper. At the opposite end the pressing chamber is defined by a plunger-like tobacco ejector by means of which the tobacco supply may be transferred from the pressing chamber into the tubular cigarette wrapper (see for instance DE-OS 2,833,681; DE-PS 2,139,242; DE-PS 2,064,641; AT-PS 146,213; FR-PS 427,582; U.S. Pat. No. 638,904, or DE-OS 3,135,700). In order to improve the functional reliability, it is possible to have a semi-shell-like spoon mounted at the operative end of the ejector for promoting transfer of the tobacco supply from the pressing chamber into the tubular cigarette wrapper while at the same time maintaining the stability thereof.
In practical use, these known filling devices have proven more or less effective. However, they have the drawback that the purchase cost for the basic equipment is relatively high due to the frequently quite extravagant constructions and the mechanism for operating the ejector slide, so that in this respect a certain restraint on the consumer's side has to be overcome. Furthermore, during filling of the pressing chamber some contamination of the user's hands and of the environment with tobacco crumbs is unavoidable, but this is frequently felt to be a nuisance and in many cases stops the user from employing the device. Finally, manual filling makes it impossible to achieve an invariable degree of filling of the pressing chamber and thus of the tubular cigarette wrapper. The cigarettes that have been self-filled in this way therefore exhibit varying smoking characteristics, i.e., varying draw, taste and different smoking periods. In this respect the self-filled cigarette is similar to the self-rolled cigarette. Moreover, the content of harmful substances of the cigarette self-filled or self-rolled in the conventional way varies widely and is uncontrolled in accordance with the varying degree of filling of the cigarette wrapper.
From the CA-PS 771,426 a device for transferring a tobacco supply from a cylindrical wrapper into an auxiliary wrap has been known, which is intended for insertion in pipes. In this way the manual filling of pipes is to be avoided. Also, cleaning of the pipes is to be facilitated by merely removing the auxiliary wrap including the remainders of the smoke.
For eliminating the above-mentioned deficiencies, both the DE-GM 8,326,921 and the DE-GM 8,309,186 propose a tobacco product for the preparation of cigarettes by the consumer, which is characterized by a pre-product in the form of an industrially prefabricated tobacco cartridge that cannot be smoked by itself, comprising an open-ended strand wrapper having its diameter matched to the tubular cigarette paper wrapper of the finished cigarette and a strand-like tobacco charge respectively corresponding to a cigarette portion, said tobacco charge being adapted to be transferred from the strand wrapper into an empty tubular cigarette paper wrapper by means of an associated plunger matched to the inner diameter of the strand wrapper. This tobacco product is suitable for use with conventional tubular cigarette wrappers for self-filling and also with conventional cigarette paper leaves for self-rolling. In accordance with the basic principle of this proposal, the consumer is presented with an exactly metered tobacco quantity in the form of a cigarette tobacco cartridge, said quantity corresponding to the content of a conventional industrial consumers' cigarette, and the tobacco content of said cartridge may be transferred in a simple way into a commercially available prefabricated tubular cigarette wrapper or into a tubular cigarette wrapper rolled and pasted from a cigarette paper leaf for self-rolling.
Although the last-mentioned proposal represents a considerable improvement over the above-mentioned prior art, it should not be overlooked that the tobacco cartridge comprises a wrapper, viz., a strand wrapper, of non-smokable material. With respect to the final product "cigarette", the strand wrapper constitutes a superfluous aid which may be used only once. Furthermore, the last-mentioned proposal requires further aids such as at least an ejector plunger for the transfer of the pre-portioned tobacco supply from the strand wrapper into the tubular cigarette paper wrapper. Manipulation of said ejector without further aids for inserting the charged tobacco cartridge into the empty tubular cigarette paper wrapper and for retaining the strand wrapper of the tobacco cartridge during transfer of the tobacco supply will be difficult even for experienced persons making their own cigarettes.